THE JOKER DID BETTER
Updated
Pros: Goes off on phone call. Cons: Maybe not good enough,
difficulty in finding sane or mentally stable mules. Discuss.
From today's Los Angeles Times:
"In an elaborate ruse, a bomber posing as a repentent extremist tried to assassinate Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia's security chief.
"Al Qaeda operative prepared an explosive device that was inserted into the rectum of the Saudi militant, who flew from Yemen to Jidda, Saudi Arabia to meet with the prince.
"He got through airport and palace security before the explosive was triggered by a call from Yemen, killing him but only wounding the prince.
"The explosive was PETN ..."
However, this very good in the story-telling sense story comes with the strong caveat, added after the post was put up this morning: It may not be ENTIRELY true.
Details discussed further in.
In any case, the Joker had his bomb sewn into a mentally ill man.
For this, and other instances of it in the news, Al Qaeda men allegedly combined the idea of a body cavity bomb with the Papillon 'plan.'
That dispenses with the potential for agonizing infection drawing attention to the bomber. In The Dark Knight the bomb mule, doubled over in pain, was ignored anyway and thrown in a cell until it was too late. A believable security lapse -- one the Joker counted on, The Dark Knight taking place -- as it does -- in the metropolitan United States.
Who's laughing now?
In September of this year, the New York Post thought it immensely funny that an assassin blew himself up with what it called the "butt bomb."
"There's a new al Qaeda terror technique that has American security experts pooping in their pants -- call it the 'butt bomb,'" it reported here.
"A suicide bomber recently put himself next to a member of the Saudi royal family, having outwitted bomb-detection machines in the palace, to set off an explosion using a charge that had been hidden in his rectum.
"The ass-assin, Abdullah Asieri, stashed a pound of explosives and a detonator inside his body in the attack on Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of counterterrorism for the kingdom, the Arab TV network Al Arabiya reported."
"The technique has astonished security experts, who warn that the United States isn't equipped to prevent the gross new form of terrorism -- and worry such bombers could make it aboard aircraft and blow themselves up mid-flight ..."
As with much western news on terrorism, the story is always partly bogus, utterly so or wracked by officially delivered mythology, repeated at places like the Los Angeles Times, for example, because it seems so similar to the Christmas Day underwear bomb and it is sensational news.
In the end, (sorry, couldn't resist) keep in mind that the US media and government authorities never manage to sort it all out. So whether it's actually true or not becomes immaterial in the generation of subsequent directives and what important people believe to be true about terrorism.
However, Peter Bergen -- also a famous source who is no longer terribly reliable -- reported this in September:
"The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef hid his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation.
"The prince was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August attack. Several news reports this week have said the assailant hid the bomb inside his rectum, but according to the Saudi official, the government assessment discounted those reports, based on various factors.
"Among them: When the bomb went off there was a flash of light, suggesting that the bomb was not hidden inside the assassin's body. Also, doctors consulted by the government judged that the toxicity of the plastic explosives would make them hard to hold for many hours inside the rectum, and the environment in this area of the body would make detonation 'difficult,' according to the Saudi official close to the investigation.
"The Saudis said they think the bomb weighed 100 grams and was made with a plastic explosive, to avoid detection by metal detectors through which the would-be assassin had to pass before he was allowed to meet with the prince.
"The official said the explosive was PETN ... The Saudis are exploring the possibility that the prince's assailant exploded the device using a detonator that used a chemical fuse, which would not be detected by a metal detector."
Bergen filed another story on December 27th, one apparently missed by the Times in its haste to run today's piece mentioned above. And the one mentioned here this morning because I, too, often stupidly believe things I read in a big daily newspaper.
Even though I know I shouldn't.
See the Bergen piece here.
As the Joker said: Why so serious? Let's put a smile on your face!
Official Dick Destiny No Prizes to the readers who can name the sci-fi TV show in which people were converted into fragmentation bombs this year and the movie in which Gary Sinise played an alien android who was a damn well-disguised small nuclear bomb.
Updated
Pros: Goes off on phone call. Cons: Maybe not good enough,
difficulty in finding sane or mentally stable mules. Discuss.
From today's Los Angeles Times:
"In an elaborate ruse, a bomber posing as a repentent extremist tried to assassinate Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia's security chief.
"Al Qaeda operative prepared an explosive device that was inserted into the rectum of the Saudi militant, who flew from Yemen to Jidda, Saudi Arabia to meet with the prince.
"He got through airport and palace security before the explosive was triggered by a call from Yemen, killing him but only wounding the prince.
"The explosive was PETN ..."
However, this very good in the story-telling sense story comes with the strong caveat, added after the post was put up this morning: It may not be ENTIRELY true.
Details discussed further in.
In any case, the Joker had his bomb sewn into a mentally ill man.
For this, and other instances of it in the news, Al Qaeda men allegedly combined the idea of a body cavity bomb with the Papillon 'plan.'
That dispenses with the potential for agonizing infection drawing attention to the bomber. In The Dark Knight the bomb mule, doubled over in pain, was ignored anyway and thrown in a cell until it was too late. A believable security lapse -- one the Joker counted on, The Dark Knight taking place -- as it does -- in the metropolitan United States.
Who's laughing now?
In September of this year, the New York Post thought it immensely funny that an assassin blew himself up with what it called the "butt bomb."
"There's a new al Qaeda terror technique that has American security experts pooping in their pants -- call it the 'butt bomb,'" it reported here.
"A suicide bomber recently put himself next to a member of the Saudi royal family, having outwitted bomb-detection machines in the palace, to set off an explosion using a charge that had been hidden in his rectum.
"The ass-assin, Abdullah Asieri, stashed a pound of explosives and a detonator inside his body in the attack on Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of counterterrorism for the kingdom, the Arab TV network Al Arabiya reported."
"The technique has astonished security experts, who warn that the United States isn't equipped to prevent the gross new form of terrorism -- and worry such bombers could make it aboard aircraft and blow themselves up mid-flight ..."
As with much western news on terrorism, the story is always partly bogus, utterly so or wracked by officially delivered mythology, repeated at places like the Los Angeles Times, for example, because it seems so similar to the Christmas Day underwear bomb and it is sensational news.
In the end, (sorry, couldn't resist) keep in mind that the US media and government authorities never manage to sort it all out. So whether it's actually true or not becomes immaterial in the generation of subsequent directives and what important people believe to be true about terrorism.
However, Peter Bergen -- also a famous source who is no longer terribly reliable -- reported this in September:
"The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef hid his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation.
"The prince was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August attack. Several news reports this week have said the assailant hid the bomb inside his rectum, but according to the Saudi official, the government assessment discounted those reports, based on various factors.
"Among them: When the bomb went off there was a flash of light, suggesting that the bomb was not hidden inside the assassin's body. Also, doctors consulted by the government judged that the toxicity of the plastic explosives would make them hard to hold for many hours inside the rectum, and the environment in this area of the body would make detonation 'difficult,' according to the Saudi official close to the investigation.
"The Saudis said they think the bomb weighed 100 grams and was made with a plastic explosive, to avoid detection by metal detectors through which the would-be assassin had to pass before he was allowed to meet with the prince.
"The official said the explosive was PETN ... The Saudis are exploring the possibility that the prince's assailant exploded the device using a detonator that used a chemical fuse, which would not be detected by a metal detector."
Bergen filed another story on December 27th, one apparently missed by the Times in its haste to run today's piece mentioned above. And the one mentioned here this morning because I, too, often stupidly believe things I read in a big daily newspaper.
Even though I know I shouldn't.
See the Bergen piece here.
As the Joker said: Why so serious? Let's put a smile on your face!
Official Dick Destiny No Prizes to the readers who can name the sci-fi TV show in which people were converted into fragmentation bombs this year and the movie in which Gary Sinise played an alien android who was a damn well-disguised small nuclear bomb.
posted by George Smith at 1:14 PM
1 Comments:
The Stargate Atlantis Season 3 episode Sunday had people being turned into explosives by radiation from a alien device.groutnet99
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